


Aurora

by arabmorgan



Series: Where Wolves Lurk [2]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 09:11:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12032766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arabmorgan/pseuds/arabmorgan
Summary: Jackson is a lot of things, but one of these things is not quite like the others.





	Aurora

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of a direct sequel to Hinterland? Not a standalone, basically.

Jackson Wang was a lot of things. A son, a fencer, a brother. A friend, an Olympian, an uncle. A werewolf.

One of those things was not like the others.

But then Jackson was something of an oddity, even among werewolves – one of those rare few born into the curse (as it was called; also known as _the affliction_ and a multitude of less flattering names) rather than bitten. Even now, his father still managed to have a good chuckle every time he told the story of Jackson’s first transformation (“your mother’s face was _priceless_ ”).

It wasn’t really something he thought about all that much. Oh, he’d daydreamed before about being human through and through, but he didn’t think it would buy him much else than a few more free nights each month. It wasn’t a big deal, and Jackson was an optimistic person by nature.

He was also, contrary to popular belief (popular, because he was, after all, an extremely popular individual, both in school and in the fencing community), capable of keeping a secret for more than three months. Sure, words sometimes gushed right past his brain to mouth filter when he got excited, and he got excited at least once a day, but he _was_ capable of such a feat.

In fact, he had been keeping his very large, very wolfish secret for about twenty years now (give or take, taking into account the time he’d taken to start speaking).

It had started out intentional, something his parents had drilled into him from as early as he could remember, and then he had started fencing, with the intention to go professional. That was when it finally became force of habit to hold his tongue, just another one of those behaviours that were so ingrained he didn’t even have to think about them anymore.

The last time a professional sportsman had been discovered to be a wolf, Jackson had still been in diapers, but he’d heard the story at least a dozen times, and read about it even more. It was his very own childhood horror story, almost.

“They’ll start picking at you,” his mother had said, her hands caressing his still-chubby cheeks, eyes wide and sad. “They’ll start looking for evidence in your matches – look, that was enhanced speed, inhuman reflexes, super strength. Legally, it won’t hold; legally, when you are a human, _you are a human_. No more, no less. But the public will buy it, the public will turn against you; they will scream _unfair_. By then, it’s easier to just bow out and retire.”

Fencing was Jackson’s _life_. He lived and breathed it, and if keeping a secret was what it would take to keep fencing, he would damn well take that secret to his grave.

It turned out to be a fairly easy secret to keep, because no one _talked_ about werewolves, even if the awareness of them floated on the peripheral of everyone’s consciousness. They were just – the elephant in the room. Or, well, the other wild animal in the room.

And then Bambam happened, and Yugyeom happened, and everything started falling apart.

_\----- Friday, 1 September 2017 -----_

**bambam** 9:52 PM  
_um yugyeom told me everything_  
_abt him i mean not u_  
 _obv_  
 _he doesn’t even know u lol_  
 _so I guess u are?? too???_  
 _but like u don’t have to talk abt it if u don’t want to??_  
 _sry i know this is weird_  
 _i just don’t wanna offend u or smth_

**bambam** 10:16 PM  
_um i hope we’re on the same pg if not this will be awkward  
lemme know if u wanna skype tmr….._

All these years and Jackson had never really thought about what would happen if his secret got exposed. It just wasn’t a _thing_ that he had ever imagined happening.

But the joke was on him, wasn’t it? It was happening now – _had_ happened, in fact – and he was scared shitless.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Bambam – the kid didn’t have a mean bone in his body, and if he’d wanted to sell Jackson’s secrets before today he sure had plenty. And _yet_.

If Bambam knew, did that mean Yugyeom knew? And if Yugyeom knew, who _else_ knew? That was kind of the problem with secrets, really – it was hard to keep them that way.

In all honesty, it _had_ kind of been Jackson’s own fault for offering his (admittedly, vague and unhelpful) opinion about Yugyeom’s own ‘secret’, but his mouth had gotten the better of him, as it so often did. Mostly it was because Bambam had looked so _worried_ and angry, all at the same time, and he couldn’t bear to see the kid like that. (Although later he kind of felt like he had mucked things up even more by speaking up – but, well, he had tried.)

It didn’t change the fact that he actually felt vaguely nauseous just reading Bambam’s messages now. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to reply yet – should he joke a little so as not to scare the kid? Should he be serious to show how dire situation was?

In the end, he resorted to begging.

_\----- Friday, 1 September 2017 -----_

**WANG** 10:46 PM  
_bam PLEASE don’t tell anyone_  
_it’s really really impt_  
 _does anyone else know??_

**bambam** 10:48 PM  
_jacks chill_  
_even yugyeom doesn’t know dw_  
 _i’m not gna tell anyone i swear_  
 _i just suddenly realised cos i rmbd all those weird hints u dropped_

Jackson stared at the words on the screen for a long moment before sighing and tipping backwards onto his pillow. He didn’t know what was up with that ‘even Yugyeom’ (why did magically finding out Yugyeom was a werewolf turn them into the kind of friends who shared secrets with each other?), but he had never loved Bambam more.

It was kind of funny, actually, because when they’d first started emailing back and forth Jackson had had the younger boy pinned as the shy, sweet type of kid – but that was just the language barrier talking. Beneath those full cheeks and mischievous smile, Bambam was a wild child waiting to happen, the kind who all of a sudden decided to take charge of his own life, dye his hair bright red, pierce his ears, and move in with a complete stranger, all in the span of a month.

Jackson wasn’t even kidding about _sudden_. One day he was training for the Olympics, sparing a few moments wherever he could to send off encouraging emails to Bambam, and the next, he had a medal around his neck and Bambam had suddenly grown up. There was a self-assurance to his words, a careless ease to his grin when they Skyped, and Jackson felt like he could actually see the load that had been lifted off the boy’s narrow shoulders.

Bambam had _so much_ to say about everything, and Jackson loved it – the way the anecdotes stumbled out of him, leaping from one thought to the next. His new housemate, his new job, his exams, those dreaded university applications. It was a far cry from Bambam’s updates about trainee drama and debut rumours – he’d had a lot to say about those too, but Jackson could never help thinking about how _trapped_ Bambam’s life had sounded, just that one building and that one routine.

_He_ certainly wouldn’t have been able to survive such a life.

Seeing the kid (who wasn’t _really_ a kid anymore) shrieking excitedly, shoving his university acceptance letter at the screen even though Jackson couldn’t read a single word of it, it made him feel kind of choked up. He felt – _proud_. His boy had grown up _so much_.

But now, he was relieved to find that grown up or not, wild child or not, that sweet kid had never really gone away. Jackson could see him peeking out right now, the Bambam who would listen to his wild fencing stories wide-eyed and open-mouthed, the same one who had uncovered Jackson’s lifelong secret and tucked it away without even blinking.

_\----- Friday, 1 September 2017 -----_

**WANG** 10:51 PM  
_do you know how much i love you??_  
_cos I do_  
 _I LOVE YOU BAMBAM_  
 _MUAH MUAH MUAH_

**bambam** 10:52 PM  
_EWWWWWWWWWW  
bye_

**WANG** 10:53 PM  
_LOL skype you tmr  
msg me when you wake up_

He was still on edge, but his wolf wasn’t clamouring so loudly at his distress anymore, which made it a little easier to put the fear away and think rationally. Not that there was much to think about. Keeping his secret was out of his hands now, and as nervous as it made him, that was that.

He did wonder about Yugyeom though. It was odd for a werewolf to reveal what it was willingly, and _odd_ was probably an understatement. Try _shocking_ or _unconventional_ ; some wolves kept the secret from their friends and families their whole lives. After all, what was the point of making everyone uncomfortable when things were already working just fine as they were?

Or maybe Bambam had discovered the secret himself – although Jackson couldn’t really imagine that happening. It wasn’t as if one could just walk into a room to find a werewolf mid-shift or something.

Well, he’d just have to ask the kid himself tomorrow.

_\----- Friday, 1 September 2017 -----_

**bambam** 11:40 PM  
_btw just so u know_  
_me and yugyeom_  
 _we like_  
 _kissed_  
 _lol_

**WANG** 11:40 PM  
_SAY WHAAAAAAATTTTT???????_

**bambam** 11:41 PM  
_i just didn’t want to have to say it out loud to u tmr_  
 _LMAO_

**WANG** 11:41 PM  
_WHEN????????_  
_why didn’t you tell me??!!!_  
 _I FEEL BETRAYED BAMBAM WHAT IS THIS_  
 _TELL ME EVERYTHING NOW_

**bambam** 11:43 PM  
_I WAS DEALING W THE WHOLE YUGYEOM THING_  
 _it was a shock!!!!!_  
 _the kissing was also a shock_  
 _but it was on tues lol_

**WANG** 11:41 PM  
 _3 DAYS HAVE PASSED_  
 _72 HOURS_  
 _and i’m only hearing of this news now???_  
 _also I thought you were angry with yugyeom cos he ditched you that one time_

**bambam** 11:43 PM  
_well yeaaaaa but it was full moon related so……_  
 _it’s not like u don’t know this!!!_  
 _we decided to start over_  
 _like actual d a t e s_

**WANG** 11:44 PM  
_AWWW that’s so romantic!!!_  
_my otp_  
 _why are you spelling out dates LOOOOL are you S H Y_

**bambam** 11:45 PM _  
shut up_

**WANG** 11:45 PM  
_tell me abt your kiss_  
_kissES???_  
 _WINK WINK_

**bambam** 11:45 PM  
_no_  
 _bye jacks_

**WANG** 11:46 PM  
_LOLOLOLOLOL_  
 _if you need tips on being wild n sexy_  
 _you know where to find me_  
 _ily_

**bambam** 11:47 PM  
_IDK U ANYMORE_  
 _DELETING U FROM MY CONTACTS_  
 _GOODBYE_

**WANG** 11:47 PM  
_goodnight bam  
dream of yugyeom’s hot bod_

**bambam** 11:48 PM  
_WTF JACKS NO_  
 _never talk to me again_

It was actually kind of weird to Jackson how _normal_ everything still was. He’d kind of imagined his entire world imploding, or at least his friendship with Bambam taking a hit – but it was almost like the fact that he was a werewolf meant nothing to Bambam. Which was nice, which was _good_ , because it _was_ nothing to make a fuss over.

This easy acceptance meant more to him than anything else Bambam could have said to him. He was, after all, still just _Jackson_ , albeit a Jackson who had concealed a rather crucial part of his own identity from his friend for four years.

Of course, the fact that Bambam was actively _dating_ another werewolf now probably had something to do with the ease with which he’d processed everything.

It was a bit of a pity that Yugyeom wasn’t in on his secret as well, otherwise Jackson would have had a very important message to impart to him, which was that if he hurt Bambam again in any way, Jackson was hopping on the first plane to Seoul to find him and rip his tail out.

Not that Jackson was typically a violent person (not at _all_ ), but he _had_ seen how low Bambam had been the past few weeks, no matter how much he’d tried to hide it. Throw in the fact that he’d given nothing more than a terse ‘ _he left when I was still in the toilet’_ as explanation and never brought Yugyeom up again – well, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

(It had made Jackson feel lower than trash to know that he had the knowledge to make Bambam feel better but wouldn’t use it, because he was too concerned about protecting himself.)

Still, he supposed it couldn’t hurt to get the kid’s contact details _somehow_. At least Yugyeom would know that there were people looking out for Bambam. Or maybe he could be counted on to be just a _little_ more open than Bambam about their romantic endeavours, just so Jackson could squeal about it over Skype and watch Bambam despair.

Lucky for him, he knew _just_ the right person to contact.

_\----- Saturday, 2 September 2017 -----_

**WANG** 12:03 AM  
_yo mark_  
_it’s jackson wang_  
 _i need a favour_

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhhh awkward ending is awkward ehe. (But like, was anyone actually surprised that Jackson was a werewolf or -) Anyway, one last Yugbam bit and we're pretty much done for this series whee!


End file.
